Crimson Skies
by GalaxyWolf2.0
Summary: Based on the 2019/2020 Australian Bushfires. It started off as just a Heatwave and that's all Australia thought it would be, but things take a horrifying turn as he soon realises that something worse than a simple heatwave is brewing. With the once calm blue skies now running red from the fires, how will Australia and his family cope with his newest Natural Disaster. Rated T


**Disclaimer: **I don't own Hetalia.

**Now I originally planned for this story to be about the Black Saturday Bushfires from 2009, but due to the horrible bushfires now affecting Australia now I wanted to write this about those. I normally put all my history facts at the bottom of the chapter but for those that are unaware just how bad things are here currently, I wanted to share some statistics before going into the story.**

**The 2018 Californian fires had burnt around 2 Million hectares of land, the 2019 Amazon fires burnt approx. 6.2 Million and so far the 2019/2020 Australian Bushfires have burnt 14.8 Million hectares (This figure is expected to rise as we aren't out of bushfire season yet). The skies are no longer blue or even black from the smoke haze, they are just red; it's like something out of Armageddon. So far, 1500 homes have been destroyed, 480 Million animals have been killed and as of today 24 people have been killed and 21 still remain missing. It's so devastating to see thousands of people just standing by the beach, a blood red sky behind them and breathing masks over their face as they've had to evacuate to the closest body of water they could find. These fires have been happening since September 2019 but over the December and January period they have become even more dire. I pray for all those affected.**

Australia tossed and turned in his bed as sleep continued to allude him. The stiff sheets; having been kicked off earlier that night, now lay in a crumpled heap on the floor. It seemed that no matter how much he tried, he was unable to sleep, even though he was exhausted. It was slowly driving him insane. He had only gotten back from seeing New Zealand yesterday, his brother was still reeling from the effects of the volcanic eruption that he had earlier that month, but he was slowly getting better.

Every time he closed Australia his eyes they would burn. They felt dry and warm to the touch, but nothing he did seemed to quell the ache. The air conditioner in his room was cranked all the way up, but it did little to soothe his heated skin. His breathing was strained and his skin sticky with sweat, and no matter which direction he lay, he just couldn't get comfortable. Three empty water bottles lay discarded on his bedside table, but his head still throbbed violently from dehydration. He knew that the drought his home was already going through was bad, but now this?!

It was one of the worst heatwaves he has ever gone through. Why did his country have to be so bloody hot? He'd take a blizzard over a heatwave any day. Hell, he'd even rather be in Europe right now during their winter seasons. He could remember when he first went to England's place when he was little, he hated how cold their winters got. But right now, he'd happily walk barefoot in a simple t-shirt and shorts across a blizzarding Russia, anything got get rid of this heat.

Just when Australia had thought he had finally succumbed to the sweet beckoning of sleep, his phone had chosen that particular moment to signal an incoming notification.

He favoured to ignore it, it was probably just a random notification telling him some new update was ready to install. He lazily reached out a shaky hand to switch his phone on silent, not bothering to look at the screen. He turned over and rubbed the ache that suddenly shot up to his head. He ignored the burning as he closed his eyes and finally, he felt himself drifting off to sleep. Although, his last thoughts before submitting to his exhaustion, was that he couldn't help but feel like he was forgetting something.

Australia eventually woke up still feeling the same as when he did before he fell asleep, only a little less tired. Australia's blurry vision flicked up to the clock that he had situated on the wall. It felt like he had only been asleep for an hour, but in reality, it had only been twenty minutes. So that meant it was only 9:20 am.

Wait. Twenty minutes _past_ nine?

Australia's eyes snapped fully open in realisation. He sat up and reached for his phone with such speeds that it made his head begin to spin and his stomach lurch in protest.

"Shit, shit, shit." Australia muttered as he opened his phone to see six text messages and numerous missed called from England, Germany and even America.

Now he knew what he'd forgotten. He completely forgot about the world meeting! It was the whole reason why he had to fly back to his home from visiting his brother. Australia groaned in misery, he was so dead if he missed it, especially since he was the hosting country.

Australia leapt off the bed and scrambled to get dressed into his more formal attire. The conference room was thankfully not that far from where his house was, but it would still take him a few minutes to get there. He made sure that the meeting would be in Queensland this year as it wasn't sweltering as much as the rest of his home, don't get him wrong it was still hot! But not as much as it would have been in New South Wales or Victoria at the moment. Another positive was that his home in Queensland was a lot closer to the city, making it easier to attend meetings compared to his homes further into the outback.

Never had Australia wanted to skip the meeting more than this moment. He felt terrible enough as it is, let alone listening to a room full of nations argue and fight for long torturous hours. With his leader overseas on holiday with his family and New Zealand still too sick to fly, he had to be the one to attend and represent his brother as well. Whilst he was still sick himself, Australia had more experience dealing with his heatwaves. He gets them so bloody much that one would think that he's used to it by now, but this one was one of his worst.

Once Australia was dressed, he pocketed his phone and glanced back up at the clock. He would have loved to go for a nice icy cold shower, in hopes that it would cool his skin down, but he was already running late as it was, so he didn't want to risk it. Besides, he was starting to feel a little bit better after getting a few minutes of sleep, but he could only hope that it was actually because things were finally starting to cool down in the southern part of his home.

He hurried down the streets, heaving a sigh of relief when he saw the building finally come into sight after what felt like forever of dodging and weaving through the masses of people. Whilst he made it inside the building he still had to get up to the room that the meeting was in, to his knowledge it was supposed to be on the third floor and the second door down on the left.

He ended up having to take the stairs as the elevator had been out of order, typical. Although Australia had only got about halfway when he felt his vision sway in and out for a few minutes. He weakly reached out to grasp the handle to steady his balance. He stopped as a dry cough racked his chest, he gasped for air in between his sudden coughing fit.

That was strange. He never normally had that happen during a heatwave before.

Blinking to regain his vision back to normal, Australia ignored that feeling, he had probably just inhaled too much of the smoke left over from the eruption when he was over at New Zealand's place and his body was just trying to get it out of his system. He eventually made it up the stairs and started the short walk to the meeting room.

The doors to the conference room were closed with a 'Do Not Disturb' sign hanging on the door, meaning that the conference was in progress. Normally Australia was always one for big entrances and always happy to disrupt a meeting. But at the moment he just wanted to get the conference over and done with, the sooner it ended the sooner he could go back to bed. So, he wanted to try to sneak in quietly and undetected.

The key word being 'try'.

Australia very slowly turned the handle and eased the door open just wide enough for him to fit through. He gently closed the door behind him, almost cringing when he heard it click back into place. He looked around the room, seeing America happily chatting on about some grand idea to help improve the economy, he decided that no one would really be paying attention to him as he started to quietly tip toe into the room in search of an empty seat.

Luckily there was one at the back near Sweden and Finland, two nations that were the least likely to make a fuss of him showing up late. He may as well sign his own death wish if he had chosen to sit with America like he usually did or near England. But it even looked like he was going to make it unnoticed to his seat! He found himself finally smiling at the prospect of avoiding a lecture from England or Germany.

Well that was until America's gaze had settled on the brunette nation keeping to the back of the room.

"Australia dude! Glad you could make it!" America shouted in greeting to his best friend, making all of the nations in the room turn to look at the flustered Australian, "You are legit just in time to hear my totally rad plan to fix the world economic crisis! But it's not that surprising as the hero always has the best ideas."

Australia mentally face-palmed, he wanted to strangle the American at that moment, he was so close to making it! He swore America was well on his way to meeting one of Australia's deadly snakes one of these days. He mustered up the energy to plaster on a nervous smile. Most of the nations just rolled their eyes while England just scoffed in annoyance and shot him a disapproving look.

Germany cleared his throat with a raised eyebrow, "And just vhere have you been? The meeting started half an hour ago, and as the hosting nation you should have been the first the arrive."

"Yeah sorry about that, I kinda had a rough night…jet lag and all."

"Jet lag? You only flew one state over!" England argued.

"Hey I have daylight savings at the moment, it's still an hour difference." Australia defended. He wasn't exactly wrong, he did have a rough night but he wasn't going to suddenly announce that he had a heatwave, they would never leave him alone!

While he loved receiving attention, he hated receiving it whenever he was sick. He got sick a lot when he was younger and he hated the feeling that he was being smothered and every cough or sneeze would be analysed. Once when he had swallowed some water and it went down the wrong way and he ended up coughing it back up, England completely freaked out thinking he was having yet another flood.

"Yeah dude you totally look like a warmed-up version of death," America pointed out, now finally able to get a good look at his friend, "What gives? And you're sweating even though it's freezing in here."

Australia glanced at the air conditioner that had indeed been turned on, he couldn't even feel it making a difference. He supressed the need to groan. Why now, of all times, did his friend have to be so observant in that moment.

Australia glanced around the room, despite it being winter in their own home they had remembered to bring formal clothing that was suitable for Australian summers, but they all seemed to be content in the chilly room that the air conditioner provided them. But Australia still felt his skin heating up despite the cool air, it was at the point where he hadn't even noticed the air con was even on.

Realising that the others were all staring at him waiting for an explanation, his face burnt in embarrassment, or was it just the heat getting to him again?

"Well I just had to walk from home to here so of course it's going to be hot," Australia tried to dismiss as he took his seat. He wouldn't be able to stand having worried lances thrown his way every second if he told them it was from the heatwave.

Germany gave him one last scrutinising look before speaking, "Alright, now if there are no more distractions we shall continue."

A collective groan was sounded by some nations. Australia noticed that England narrowed his eyes in thought at his oldest son before turning back to hear what America has to say. Australia let out a breath as he prepared himself for what he knew was going to be a long day. But he'd be fine, it was only a heatwave after all, and those really only tended to last a couple of days max.

But as the meeting progressed, Australia found himself starting to believe he was getting worse. His head pounded with every vibration of sound that seemed to bounce of the walls, and it would hit him like a gun shot, it was agony. His mouth felt dry and sore as he found the sudden urge to start coughing again, but he held it in. Normally he wouldn't care about disrupting the meeting, but he didn't want to sit for any longer than he had to.

He had trouble focusing on the presentations as he kept spacing out. Australia rubbed his eyes in a vain attempt to try and quell the burning pain in them and to refocus his mind. He seemed to become paler as the minutes ticked by. It didn't help that Germany was now droning on and on about something, he tried to remember the topic, but his mind was a little fuzzy. But the monotone voice was starting to grate on his nerves, it was like nails to a chalkboard. He just wanted this agonising meeting to be over, he was almost ready to snap every time another nation got into an argument, which was very out of his character to behave to aggressively, be must have been _really_ high strung from his fever.

Australia closed his eyes and ignored the sudden burning sensation that they had felt as he rubbed his left temple to try and quell the sudden ache that seemed to flare in his body.

Australia jumped when a hand was placed on his shoulder. His green eyes flew open to see who had caught him off guard.

It took him a moment to remember who the violet eyes belonged to as they stared down gently at him.

"Are you okay Australia?" Canada asked, concern laced his quiet voice, "We're having our hour break now, didn't you notice?"

Australia looked around to notice that he had been really the only one still sitting in his original seat as most of the nations had gone out in small groups for lunch either at small cafes or in the refreshment room. He must have been really out of it if he didn't notice that.

"How long have I been here?" Australia asked, ignoring the soft spoken nation's first question.

"Only about five minutes really. I was a little worried, you have been spacing out all day." Canada commented with a small frown.

"It's just a small heatwave, I'll be fine," Australia knew that he could trust Canada to keep a secret, as bad as it sounds no one really would notice if he made a comment on it anyway.

"It doesn't look all that small, are you sure you don't need me to get you anything?" Canada asked.

Australia phased out of Canada's question as he noticed that England was finishing up his conversation with France as he was starting to head over to their direction. The last thing Australia needed right now was a lecture on his less than desirable punctuality. So, he looked for a quick escape.

"Listen, I'm just gonna get some air real quick," Australia said as he stood up, "I'll catch you later,"

"I can come with you if you want?" Canada asked, but Australia was already walking out the door before he was able to finish.

He didn't need anyone to hover over him either, he knew Canada was only being polite but he was a grown nation. He could handle a heatwave just fine, he's had them before.

XxxxXxxx

As soon as Australia stepped outside of the building he untucked his shirt and was taking several deep breaths, was it getting stuffy or was it just him? He was so uncomfortable that even the thin fabric of his clothes made him twitch and the sweat made them stick tightly to his skin, it was like it was suffocating him.

He leans against the bricks of the building and closed his eyes, even if they burned as he did so, he tried to even out his breathing the best he could. Beads of sweat began to appear on his skin, just how hot was it?! This was getting way to hot for just a normal heatwave.

Australia took out his phone out of his pocket to try and call his boss to ask if he knew what was happening. But when he tried to turn it on, all he got was a black screen with a notification saying that his phone had overheated and must cool down before further use. Australia rolled his eyes, it seemed like he wasn't the only one affected by the heat, the phone must have been too close to his body and it had heated up.

Australia felt the need to cough again, he had needed to constantly during the meeting and he didn't know why. He had managed to keep it in, so not to disrupt the meeting and have it go on even longer. He bites down that urge to cough when he sees Japan approach him.

"Konichiwa Australia," Japan politely greets, "It is good to see you again."

Australia smiles tightly in response, despite his deteriorating health.

"How's it going?" Australia asks, "Where's Italy and Germany?"

Normally the Axis trio always spent their breaks together.

"Italy dragged Germany off to find a restaurant that made pasta. Then of course South Italy-"

But Australia zoned out of the conversation, all he could hear was a jumbled mess as his head started to spin which made his stomach lurch. The pain in his body began to surge, his breathing was becoming strained as his chest felt like a carpet python was constricting it. Something was wrong. Something else was happening back in his other states, something that wasn't just a heatwave anymore.

His face grows pale in realisation, he's had enough of them to know the signs.

But before he could say anything, Australia gasped and flinched as a hot searing pain shot up his spine. Japan noticed Australia's failing health.

"Forgive me for being so bold," Japan begins, "But are you alright? You don't look very well."

Shaking his head Australia finally gives up on trying to hide his heatwave, as this was now something much worse.

"S-something's w-wrong," Australia managed to get out through gritted teeth. He was unable to say anything else as another shot of pain travelled up his body, leaving him leaning against the wall of the building for support.

Australia sees alarm flash through Japan's normally emotionless eyes. He isn't as close to Australia as the nation's family was, so he wasn't too sure what was happening to the younger nation. Whilst, they had grown closer as friends, even after everything that happened in the second world war, he didn't know Australia's weather as much as they did, or how to deal with them.

"Would you like me to go and find America or England?" Japan asks, he placed a hand on Australia's unusually warm shoulder to bring the Aussie's attention to him and away from the pain.

Australia shook his head.

"I-I just need to get h-home." Once he was home he could deal with the disaster from there, he's experienced this before so he knows what to do.

Japan gave him a look of uncertainty, he doubted that Australia could make the ten minute walk back to his house on his own.

"I'll come with you to make sure you get home alright."

Australia didn't have the energy or will to deny the older nation's help. So they both started the journey back to his house.

Whilst it was only supposed to be a ten minute walk Australia was sure that it took at least an hour, his shaky form was barely able to keep him upright as his breathing became more and more strained. It got to the point where Australia just couldn't take the pain anymore.

They were just at Australia's driveway when a crippling surge of heat struck Australia bringing him to his knees. His body hunched over and his violently shaking hand dug into the dirt whilst the other griped his chest. He couldn't breath! Why couldn't he breath?

His skin felt like it was on fire, it was like flames were licking the underside of his skin and he couldn't put it out no matter how much he tried. Sweat was dripping off him and his vision was clouded with black spots that made his vision unfocused.

Before he could stop it, his chest started to rattle and vibrate. Plumes of thick, black smoke emitted from Australia's mouth as his body hunched over as he let out a series of coughs. His breath was cutting off as he couldn't get any air into his lungs as he was choking on the smoke.

He barely heard Japan alarmingly ask him what was happening, it was the first time he remembered seen the nation look so panicked.

Australia was barely able to get out the words, but it was clear enough for Japan to catch one word.

"Fire."

**And that's it for this chapter, I will post the next one as soon as I get it written. I hope I did a good job, it's my first time writing a natural disaster theme so any constructive criticism is much welcomed. Sorry if Japan seems a little OOC, it's my first time writing him. **

**To all my fellow Australians I hope you and your loved ones are safe from this horrible disaster. **


End file.
